Posted 18 hours ago

3d printing

hi

I'm starting to get into woodworking a bit and have come across a lot of nifty tool adapters online that people are 3d printing e.g. vacuum hose adapters to fit different tools etc.

what's the best way to get into designing items? are there any free mobile or windows apps that anyone would recommend for a complete beginner?

in terms of getting those items printed, what is the cheapest method outside of owning a printer, which i don't think i can justify at this moment in time.

thanks

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17 h, 14 m ago
Pretty sure there are loads of websites where you can submit the file you want to, pay a fee and have it printed and sent to you - I've done it previously but I can't remember the site we used.. maybe worth looking into?
14 h, 42 m ago
There are lots of free cad programs available. I mostly use OpenSCAD, because I like its simple script-based approach, and Fusion360 for more complex models.
1 m ago
Owning a printer isn't really optional if you're designing. Thing is, it's not as simple as 1. Design thing; 2. Print thing which is perfect on the first attempt. In practise, you're never going to get it right first time for a load of different reasons, whether it be unforeseen shortcomings in your design, things you subsequently realised you could've done much better, or errors in measurement or failure to account for errors or inaccuracies in production. While you could enlist a print service for each revision of your design, it'll be so slow and expensive that it's barely worth it - you'll be paying around £10 per revision and waiting at least a day or two, and, that's just no good. By the time you've ordered 10 prints, you could've just bought an Ender 3 (or something of its ilk) of your own.

Regarding apps, TinkerCAD is my favourite. It's a web-based free app which is pretty basic, but also very straight-forward and intuitive. I definitely recommend it, especially for (relatively) basic design stuff.